Montblanc

Time Writer II - Mr. Gomila talks It is the time for the Annual "World Watch Fair" at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo. As with last year, one of this year's biggest events was by Montblanc. As for last year, it was Montblanc's "Ecrire le Temps" Exhib...  

I had not heard of this model until now... very cool looking but not sure how much use other than to have it as a great novelty someone else does not have! What size is the watch as it looks quite big on your wrist and any idea of the price? Thanks for sh... 

.. as far as I remember, around 44mm? At first Mr. Gomila thought of 47, but MB thought it would be too big.... The price... I saw Japanese MSRP, but you should check with your local MB :-) Way out of my league, for sure! Ken

getting my hands on this one. My chronograph lust continues! Many thanks, Tim

Hi Tim, For the first unit, almost all the parts must be made by Mr. Gomila himself and he was really not excited by the prospect of how long it will take the first commercial unit - may take a year or so. The second will be another 6 months or so. Be pat... 

so little time! ;0). Best to all, Tim

Two escapements, a traditional escapement for the watch, and a chronograph escapement system with 100 beat per minute escapement with a 10X multiplier-gear for true 1000th of a second accuracy. That's amazing. I'm starting to see Villeret almost like a Ha... 

Watch mechanism, btw 5 days PR is amazing by its own right, and chrono mechanism is totally separate including of course the barrel. Crown winding - clockwise winds the watch and counter-clockwise winds the chrono. But visibly fun to see the both balance ... 

away from MB. I have been wondering how the heck they did this since I first read the print article on it. It works similarly in principle to the leveraging indicator on a machinist's dial test indicator, from what they have still left us to figure out. I... 

.. after the patent has been granted, which is, according to him, 2 years away. I, too, am anxious to know more about the idea! Thanks! Ken

Thanks Ken, Mr Gomila and Mr Hirota for the Interview. This "impossible" mechanical achievement is completely redundant in modern world of precision electronic timing. Yet, the mere existence of such a true mechanical time-stopper is sufficient to make it... 

... to achieve this by the traditional mechanical watch making. Seriously "Purist" approach, indeed! Ken

I'm learning more and more about the incredible accomplishment this piece has and the 20+ patents involved. I second that nomination for the PuristSPro Purity Prize.

I really hope Montblanc makes more than 36 pieces of this 1/1000th sec chronograph, especially in different color variations. I would absolutely love to see Villeret release a NEW sports watch case which houses this new mechanism. Now that would be rockin... 

... this mechanism in the affordable sports watch line would be awesome. But that may be years away..... Ken

Thank you, Ken-san and PuristS. The “Black box” captured my attention, so I gave some questions to Mr. Gomilla. MH : Is that a sort of regulator system used in Minutes Repeaters? Bulgari uses very refined regulator system, which verifies inertia moment wi... 

... Thank you, Hirota-san, for your "guess". That "regulator" must eliminate "ticking" of the 1/1000th sec gear (for the "constant" speed). Converting the ticking to smooth constant speed must be some sort of "regulator" or "governor" type, I tend to agre... 

Ken-san, Yes that’s the real mystery. No need to accelerate drive train if the black box can give stable rotation on “Mobile de milleme” a.k.a 1/1000th wheel. But the rotation of 1/1000th wheel is not stable as shown in this figure (that the reason why F....  

...to see your video of the Time Writer II running and understand a little bit more about the magical insides of the watch. I'll be really curious to learn more about the 1/1000 homogenization mechanism in the future hopefully. Thanks for the great post, ...